The Stubborn Challenge Of Laundry Folding: Why Robots Struggle To Fold Clothes

In a world where science fiction has long predicted the rise of household robots, the humble task of laundry folding has proven to be a surprisingly stubborn challenge. More than 60 years after Rosie the Robot’s TV debut in “The Jetsons,” researchers are still struggling to teach machines the art of folding clothes.

The complexity of the task lies not in the fabric itself, but in the infinite variations that can be created by the way fabric can be crumpled. David Held, a robotics researcher at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, notes that “it’s not the fabric itself that is the challenge. It’s the amount of variations that can be created by the way fabric can be crumpled, and all the different kinds of clothing items that exist.” Current robots often rely on a strategy called “pick and place,” using pre-determined moves to manipulate fabric.

However, this approach frequently fails to result in a good fold, as soft fabric can crumple or distort unexpectedly. The difficulty arises from the fact that robots are often trained on images of unwrinkled clothing lying flat on a surface, with all features visible. In contrast, humans can easily pick up a shirt and quickly find a sleeve or collar to orient themselves, even when the garment is crumpled.